Henry Billings Brown

“ But this presumption does not apply to every fact in the case which it may be in the power of the defendant to prove. He is not bound to anticipate every fact which the government may wish to show in the course of the trial, and produce evidence of that fact. In this case the wife was not a competent witness, either in behalf of or against her husband. ”

“ Ct. Rep. 765; Hall v. U.S., 150 U.S. --, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 22.
Had the wife been a competent witness, the comments upon her absence would have been less objectionable. It was said by Chief Justice Shaw in the case of Com. v. ”